Program Assistant

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Job Location: Washington, DC

Telework Eligible: Yes, at least 3 days per week in-person reporting at Washington, DC office.

Remote Eligible: No.

A. Summary Statement:

The Public Health Institute (PHI) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. As one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation, we are at the forefront of research and innovations to improve the efficacy of public health statewide, nationally, and internationally.

The Global Health Training, Advisory and Support Contract (GHTASC) delivers effective global health programming to advance the mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Global Health (GH) through institutional support and workforce development services from junior, mid-level, senior and expert advisory, and administrative professionals.

The Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) within the Bureau for Global Health’s (GH) advances and supports family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programs worldwide.  The Office provides global coordination and leadership for improved policy, advocacy, and health outcomes; generates, organizes and disseminates knowledge in response to global and country needs; and partners with USAID field missions to accelerate progress towards achieving FP/RH development objectives.  PRH is committed to advancing and supporting a more inclusive, diverse, equitable, accessible, anti-racist and learning community and to integrating these values into Office operations, functions and programming.  PRH believes having diverse workforce benefits and enriches the development of all staff and the Office’s work.

The Policy, Evaluation and Communication (PEC) Division within PRH creates the enabling environment for FP/RH. The PEC division works with partners within USAID and externally in order to promote effective family planning advocacy, policy, financing, and governance; collect, analyze, and evaluate data for evidence-based decision making; develop and implement social and behavior change and knowledge management efforts to influence attitudes, norms, and behaviors and generate, curate, organize, share, and use knowledge to create value or support decision-making in context. PEC provides technical leadership, strategic direction, and implementation oversight, support to field missions, partner coordination, and performance tracking for family planning. PEC also provides technical input for evaluation efforts across the population, health and nutrition sector.

B. Position Summary:

The Program Assistant is responsible for performing a variety of complex and routine administrative and analytical duties to support the social and behavior change (SBC) and knowledge management (KM) teams in the PEC Division. These duties are wide ranging and include administrative-type tasks, such as scheduling and preparing for briefings and meetings and maintaining program files, as well as more complex analytical tasks, such as collecting, compiling, and analyzing data for various program documents and designing and maintaining spreadsheets in support of financial tracking systems. The Program Assistant works with members of the team to provide overall administrative support and perform other duties and supports liaising and communication with other offices across the agency.

Employment Type: Full Time

Full pay range for this position is: $29.38 to $51.38 per hour, with the starting wage determined based on candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, as well as budget availability.

C. Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide routine and ad hoc administrative and programmatic support to office, division, and project management teams for successful implementation of routine programmatic and core team functions.
• Provide operational support to the team, including working with technical staff and external partners to ensure that work plans, financial reports, and progress reports and other deliverables are prepared, submitted, and reviewed.
• Collect, compile, organize, and plan and assist in analyzing technical and/or statistical information and develop data for use in briefings, publications, and reports.
• Create and analyze budgets and financial tracking sheets for use by technical teams to track anticipated funding and funding modifications, assist in financial monitoring, and prepare financial action forms to facilitate annual obligations.
• Provide program-related administrative and financial support to systems, databases, file maintenance, and information management, and assist in design and upkeep of spreadsheets and databases to monitor country programs and inform teams of upcoming issues, deadlines, financial updates, and action items.
• Schedule meetings and events, provide general logistics/support, maintain the team calendar, support meeting setup and logistics, and document meeting minutes/notes.
• Provide administrative support for hiring actions, onboarding of new staff, meeting logistics, front office taskers and memos, updating contact information and listservs, and drafting and reviewing emails and other communications.
• Assist with the development of presentations and resources, including synthesized analysis products using Google Sheets and Google Slides.
• Assist program and technical staff in the preparation of program documents and correspondence, ensuring that all documentation is complete and in compliance with USAID rules, regulations, and standards.
• Support Technical Advisors and Agreement/Contracting Officer’s Representatives (AORs/CORs) to coordinate and manage project(s).
• Travel internationally and/or domestically 10% of the time.
• Work at least 3 days per week in-person at Washington, DC office.
• Other duties as assigned.

D. Qualification Requirements:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with 4 years of relevant experience, Associate’s degree and 6 years of relevant experience, OR High School graduate and 8 years of relevant experience.
• US Citizenship or US Permanent Residency with the ability to obtain and maintain a Facility Access clearance is required. For Permanent Residents, this means having resided in the US for at least 3 of the past 5 years.

Other Qualifications:

• Experience in project administration and management procedures.
• Demonstrated quantitative, analysis, and organizational skills with attention to detail.
• Proficient with basic financial management and budgeting concepts.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from managers, staff, and clients.
• Expertise working with large and complex spreadsheets and pivot tables.
• Strong organizational skills and detail-oriented working style.
• Excellent analytical and communication (written and verbal) skills.
• Flexibility and openness in responding to changing work priorities and environment.
• Demonstrated strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team, including cross cultural teams.
• Ability to exercise independent and sound judgment in planning and carrying out tasks and in taking steps necessary to meet deadlines.
• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office with an emphasis on Excel spreadsheet skills, PowerPoint, Internet, and Gmail, along with all Google applications.
• Ability to travel internationally and/or domestically approximately 10%.
• Ability to work at least 3 days per week in-person at Washington, DC office.

E. Competencies

• Innovation: Takes initiative to propose new ideas/approaches and demonstrates ability to find new and better ways to accomplish work.
• Client Service: Communicates with clients, handling any issues politely and efficiently; understands and is available to clients; maintains pleasant and professional image.
• Accountability: Takes ownership of work responsibilities and holds high standards. Keeps commitments and takes appropriate actions to ensure obligations are met.  Pursues efficiency and effectiveness and adheres to organization policies and procedures.
• Interpersonal Skills: Works in cooperation with others and communicates effectively with co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, clients, and other outside contacts.
• Continual Learning: Assesses and recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues professional development that is aligned with organizational role, contribution, and goals; proactively shares knowledge with others to foster learning across the organization.

F. APPLICATION INFORMATION:

Prior to submitting your application your resume must include relevant paid and non-paid experience showing dates held with month, year and hours worked per week for each position. Please ensure that all relevant experience and education is documented on your resume. There is no limitation to resume length; updates to resumes will not be accepted during the interview and selection process.

EEO STATEMENT

The Public Health Institute is committed to a policy that provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition including genetic characteristics, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, and to make all employment decisions so as to further this principle of equal employment opportunity. To this end, the PHI will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition including genetic characteristics, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, and will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are offered employment and employees are treated during employment without regard to these characteristics.

For further information regarding Equal Employment Opportunity, copy and paste the following URL into your web browser: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf

ADA STATEMENT

The Public Health Institute is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities and employment for individuals with disabilities. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Recruitment Team at least 48 hours in advance at Recruitment@phi.org.

This position described in this announcement falls under a contract with the Federal Government, and therefore is subject to the provisions put forward in OMB Circular A-76 which prohibit contractors from performing inherently governmental functions.  Specifically, employees placed in agency positions will not perform inherently governmental functions, nor supervise any personnel other than the contractor’s own staff, nor make final decisions or sign documents that commit the U.S. Government